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Thursday Night Football to Stay on Sportsnet Through 2016

Sportsnet has signed a new contract with the NFL to exclusively show Thursday Night Football through the end of the 2016 season. Sportsnet will show 16 games per season. 13 of those are from NFL Network’s package of Thursday/Saturday games, while the other three are Thanksgiving Day games from CBS, FOX and NBC.

Here is Sportsnet’s press release.

Sportsnet today announced it has reached a five-year partnership extension with the National Football League through the 2016 NFL season, continuing as the exclusive Canadian television broadcaster for Thursday Night Football. The announcement was made today as part of Rogers Media’s 2012 Upfront presentation, in which the company unveils its programming lineup for the 2012-13 fall and mid-season.

The new agreement, which begins this season, includes distribution for television and online. Sportsnet will be home to 13 Thursday Night Football games for the 2012 regular season, plus three Thursday games on U.S. Thanksgiving Day, November 22 (for a total of 16 Thursday games in 2012).

“The NFL is one of the most exciting sports leagues in the world, boasting a large and passionate Canadian fan base,” said Navaid Mansuri, Vice-President of Finance & Sports Programming, Rogers Media. “Through our strong partnership with the NFL, Sportsnet will fuel fans with more electrifying NFL action than ever before – Thursdays and Sundays will be appointment viewing on television and online all football season long.”

“We are very excited to continue our partnership with Rogers Media,” said Hans Schroeder, Senior Vice President of Media Strategy and Development, NFL. “Thursday Night Football has been a tremendous success on Sportsnet the past three seasons and we look forward to five more great years as we continue to grow the NFL in Canada.”

The renewal extends Sportsnet’s partnership with the NFL and enhances Rogers’ current NFL coverage which also includes Sunday afternoon games at 4 p.m. ET. Sportsnet will announce its full broadcast schedule for the 2012 season in the coming months.

4 thoughts on “Thursday Night Football to Stay on Sportsnet Through 2016”

That’s very cool how the Thursday Night Football games will remain on Sportsnet for the next five years and included in the deal is online streaming!

A question for you Josh (if you don’t have the answer, that’s not a problem): for the Thursday Night games in October which will conflict with the MLB Playoffs & World Series, what are the chances in your opinion that Rogers will throw those games on Citytv?

No chance, I’d say. City will have primetime programming (like Person of Interest, Scandal and 30 Rock). That’s the reason they launched SN1. NFL will probably get shuffled to SN1 during the playoffs (or at least the LCS and World Series).

I asked because the Vikings will be playing the Buccaneers in October on TNF. If there’s an MLB Playoffs or World Series game that night, at least I can watch the game online at sportsnet.ca and/or hear the game on Team 1200 if there’s no Senators or 67s game scheduled for that night. It’s all good. :)